Chamber approves project that resumes Food Acquisition Program

The Chamber of Deputies approved this Friday (7) Bill 2920/23, from the Executive Branch, which resumes the Food Acquisition Program (PAA). The text extinguishes the Programa Alimenta Brasil, the version implemented in the Bolsonaro government. As the vote was symbolic, it is not possible to know how each deputy voted. Now, the proposal goes to the Senate.

The text takes advantage of the content of Provisional Measure 1166/23, which lost its validity without being voted on, informed Agência Câmara. The proposal foresees that at least 30% of the resources reserved by the government for the purchase of food from federal public administration bodies should be spent on products from family farmers.

According to the project, after families are registered in the Single Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico), the following groups will have priority for sales to the program: indigenous peoples; traditional peoples and communities; land reform settlers; fishermen; black; women; rural youth; elderly; disabled people; and families of people with disabilities as dependents.

MTST Solidary Kitchen program becomes public policy

During the processing, the proposal of the rapporteur, Deputy Guilherme Boulos (Psol-SP), for the creation of the Solidarity Kitchen Program was maintained in the text, with the objective of providing food to the population, preferably to people in situations of vulnerability and social risk, including the homeless and food insecure population.

The initiative was created based on the project of the social movement led by Boulos, the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST). Parliamentarians presented a statement to withdraw the implementation of solidarity kitchens, which was rejected during the analysis of the amendments. In this regard, 242 voted to keep the rapporteur’s text and 175 voted to remove the program from the text.

The text provides for the waiver of bidding “in contracting non-profit private entities, for the implementation of the Solidarity Kitchens Program”.

Boulos stated that the approval was “historic” due to the approval of the initiative. “Today, we approved a public policy for solidarity kitchens. Solidarity kitchens began as an experience of the social movement during the pandemic… Today, the Homeless Workers Movement alone has 46 self-organized solidarity kitchens in the country and many other social organizations have built their own”, said the deputy.

The rapporteur also said that the PAA “goes on one end helping small producers and on the other end, ensuring quality food for school meals, popular restaurants, regulatory stocks and now also for solidarity kitchens”.

Federal deputy Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP), in a proposed amendment to the text of the project, argued that by proposing the transformation of the MTST Solidarity Kitchens into a nationwide public policy, Boulos could create difficulties for the progress of similar initiatives that already exist in some municipalities.

Tanks and food without bidding

The proposal also guarantees the waiver of bidding for “the contracting of non-profit private entities for the implementation of cisterns or other social technologies for access to water for human consumption and food production, to benefit low-income rural families affected by the drought. or by the regular lack of water”.

To supply school lunches or form regulatory stocks, for example, the Executive Branch of all spheres of government (federal, state, district and municipal) will be able to buy directly, waiving the bidding process, the food produced by these supplier beneficiaries.

Exemption from bidding will be allowed provided that the following requirements are met: prices compatible with those in force in the market, at the local or regional level; respect for the maximum annual value for acquisitions in each modality, valid per family unit, per cooperative or other formal organizations of family agriculture; the food purchased must be produced by the beneficiaries themselves and comply with the quality control requirements set forth in the legislation; and compliance with other norms established in the specific purchasing legislation for each modality.

In the case of agroecological or organic products, when it is impossible to quote the reference price in the local or regional market, purchased foods may have an increase of up to 30% in relation to conventional ones.

Products intended for food safety actions

The products acquired by the PAA will be used for food and nutritional security action programs, for the formation of stocks or to meet the demands of foodstuffs and propagation materials.

Boulos also proposes that the Executive Branch may regulate the method of purchasing seeds, seedlings and propagation materials for human or animal consumption in order to donate them to beneficiary consumers or suppliers.

Public hospitals and entities that are part of the socio-assistance network, preferably serving the elderly and people with disabilities, may be assisted by the public administration with PAA products in their demands for foodstuffs. This will also apply to hospitals and entities of this type that are private non-profit.